


one half of a disaster

by notverygoodattitles



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Gen, mikeys there but only like for a few moments, this got out of hand this was going to be 1k
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-02-23 01:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23936539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notverygoodattitles/pseuds/notverygoodattitles
Summary: It’s been years since Donnie and Leo fought over whether they were twins or not. Years since they agreed weren’t.It takes only a few days to change that.or; the fic where Donnie calls Leo his twin again years after arguing they weren't twins, but not to his face. Leo's just trying to figure out how to deal with this information.
Relationships: Donatello & Leonardo (TMNT)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 267





	one half of a disaster

**Author's Note:**

> wow this got out of hand anyway this was insipired by [this fic!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22730758#work_endnotes) which is super good and i reccomend it!!! i kept rereading it and this was originally going to be leo's pov of that fic, then i got worried about plagarizing and now its its own thing somehow???
> 
> you should give it a try btw, its really good!!! feel free to tell me if my fic is ooc! or if theres mistakes i didnt beta this too much i got like really tired. this was not supposed to take this long

It’s been years since Donnie and Leo fought over whether they were twins or not. Years since they agreed weren’t.

It takes only a few days to change that.

It’s almost surprising the first time Leo hears it. He’s not supposed to, really. Eavesdropping is bad manners. Not that that would stop him. Is it his fault he got good hearing? No. No it isn’t.

It’s not his fault then, he reasons, when he hears a conversation he really shouldn’t be hearing.

He’s in the hallway, trying to make sense of the pieces of a toaster. They’re all scrunched up in his arms, cogs and bits almost falling off.

He grumbles, struggling to keep the pile steady. “I swear this toaster hates me.”

It’s not as broken as could be. Sure, the pieces are a little loose, but overall? Not as bad as it could be. It’s salvageable, and they don’t need Donnie to make a new one.

Speaking of which.

Leo turns his head to the voice of said brother coming from a room nearby. 

“–or whatever.”

“Sure.” It’s Mikey. Leo raises an eyebrow at the pause, until he hears his brother continue. “Hey Donnie, you did it again.”

“Did what?”

“Called Leo your twin!”

There’s a crash in the hallway.

Leo hears his older brother groan. “Leo, what did you do?”

“Everything’s fine!” Leo calls back.

Except everything wasn’t, and he’s not entirely sure the toaster is manageable anymore. He picks up the pieces anyway, trying to hold them in his arms.

He hears his brother groan a lot closer now. There’s a moment of silence until he sees his brother hand him a part he missed on the floor.

“The toaster again, Leon?” Donnie frowns at him.

Leo cuts back a sigh of annoyance. He’s really giving him no time to process this, huh? Instead, he gives him a shrug. “Hey, maybe the toaster’s cursed! Not like anyone else breaks it.”

Donnie snorts and helps pick up the rest of the machinery. “At this point ‘Nardo, you might as well accept you’re just bad at cooking.”

“I’m only bad when it’s convenient to you, huh?” Leo does sigh this time, but in the most dramatic way he can. “You hurt me, brother.”

Donnie rolls his eyes. “Say that when you don’t burn  _ nachos _ .”

“Hey,” Leo huffs. “ _ you _ burnt an egg.”

“Scoff. Nachos are harder to burn. You’re clearly the worse cook here.”

The two of them bicker back and forth. It’s a comfortable rhythm, really. One Leo’s used to. It’s not unusual for he and Donnie to argue like this, but…

Mikey’s words ring in the back of his head. He called Leo his twin?

Donnie frowns as he looks at Leo. “Something the matter, Leon?”

“Nah,” Leo grins back, pulled out of his thoughts. “Everything’s fine.”

Donnie gives him a doubtful glance but lets the matter drop.

Donnie directs him to leave the parts on one side of his room. Leo does so, letting the parts noisily make their way to the floor.

He raises an eyebrow. “Leo, are you trying to break them more?”

“Of course not!”

Donnie rolls his eyes and drops the parts he was holding as well. Much more gently than Leo did, but who’s to say?

“You can leave if you want,” he says, waving a hand to the curtains. “I’ve got it from here.”

“Nah.” Leo peers at the pile which Donnie is sorting through. “Hey, can I watch?”

“Just don’t try surprising me. I could probably burn you.”

“No promises!”

Donnie rolls his eyes again but doesn’t tell him to go away. Leo takes a seat on his bed, watching his brother grumble at the toaster.

He watches him mess with the parts, trying to meld them back together. It’s quiet, for a while.

“Hey, Donnie?” Leo asks, breaking the silence.

“Yeah?”

Leo looks at his brother, soldering the toaster back together. He knows he’s listening, with the way he pauses every now and then when he works.

He feels almost like a kid again. His brother’s back against him while he insisted they were twins. Every word from Donnie pierced at him as he insisted neither of them were actually  _ related _ .

Idly, he wonders if he even thinks of them as brothers.

It’s not like him to be quiet, Leo knows. So he throws him a grin, even if he can’t see it.

“Bet I’m winning Smash later.”

He doesn’t ask, if only because the answer would hurt him more.

In the back of his mind, he recalls a little voice reminding him how they’re _ all different types of turtles, Leo, we can’t be twins! _

He shushes the voice and goes back to playing.

  
  


He’s starting to rethink the whole  _ that was just a fluke _ thing. If only because Donnie is painfully bad at hiding things. Or maybe Leo’s just excellently great at finding secrets. Maybe they’ve both just lived too long around the other and Leo’s figuring out how to know things from a single glance. 

Case in point: this whole scene.

Leo enjoys messing with his brother’s phones and messing up their contacts. Donnie knows this and secures his phone in many different ways. Mostly by changing his passcode every time he realizes Leo messed with it and by having it on his person.

So it’s lucky for Leo that Donnie was busy and distracted teaching Raph how to play Animal Crossing, leaving Donnie’s phone on the counter.

It takes only a few moments to grab Donnie’s phone, leave to his room, and hack it open.

Not that he can hack things. He’s just lucky Donnie never changed his password to something other than  _ bootyshaker9000 _ after that incident.

First things first. He swipes his way into the camera app and takes a couple of selfies. Some people may find fifty selfies of their brother excessive, but for Leo, it’s too little. It’s enough that Donnie won’t retaliate  _ much _ , at least, so he makes his way to the other parts of his phone.

He scrolls into contacts, puts Leo in the search bar, then frowns.

No results.

He tries other variations of his name before switching to insults. No results, either. He decides to save himself the trouble and gives Donnie’s phone a quick text.

He glances at the notification screen and reminds himself, quickly, that he should not be dropping his brother’s phone.

He checks again, if only to affirm it. And, well. In clear letters, he sees Donnie has changed his contact name to  _ twin _ .

He frowns. 

Maybe it’s to set him off? He shakes the thought off. Donnie was the one upset about it in the first place, not him. 

He clicks a button, and the phone shuts. 

_ We’re still twins, Donnie! Come on, we have the same birthday and everything! _

It’s a long lost argument Leo never won, and there was no point in thinking of how he could. 

Even if it means he can think of a place where Donnie would call him his twin when he was in earshot, instead of out of it.

The one and only Leonardo does not get upset over small things. Especially not over an argument that stings– even if they were just kids when it happened.

_ Forgive and forget _ , he remembers Splinter telling him. And he knows he’s supposed to let go of that old argument. How he and Donnie weren’t even the same species, how they couldn’t be related–

He takes a deep breath and heads to his room. Meditation it is.

“Leon, are you free?”

Mediation is now off the table.

He turns to look at Donnie, who’s holding a… suspiciously familiar object.

“Sorry Don,” he shrugs, holding up his odachi. “got something in my schedule today. You’re totally free to buy my time, though.”

Donnie rolls his eyes. “It won’t take  _ that _ long, Leo. Five minutes. We just need to test the toaster.”

“Nope!” He already has a portal open. “See you later, brother!”

This is not the park.

“This is  _ not _ a park,” April affirms.

Leo’s standing in April’s apartment. Or would be standing, if it weren’t for the fact he scared Mayhem, who decided to respond by knocking him over, along with other furniture that was in the place.

In other news, he’s on top of the fridge.

“ _ Right _ , so.” He clears his throat. “Sorry for barging in on you April, but I’ve gotta bounce–”

“Nope.” April frowns. “Something’s up, Leo. And it ain’t a mission, because Donnie would’ve mentioned it.”

“Hey, we go on solo missions sometimes!” Leo shrugs. “Come on April, let me off the fridge.”

“If this  _ was _ a solo mission, you wouldn’t even have gotten on top of the fridge.”

He shrugs, again, because that is a very good point but he’s not saying that. “Hey, hasn’t started. What’s a few minutes on a fridge to the hours I’ll be out?”

“Leo, what kind of solo mission needs you to be in a park for hours?”

“Draxum’s mutating pigeons.”

“Somehow I find that hard to believe.” April sighs. “What would you be doing in a park, anyway?”

“Can’t a guy go to the park to relax?”

“Mhm. And you aren’t there to avoid something?”

“Whaaat?” Leo laughs. “Me? Avoiding my problems?”

“Leo, you know I saw you run all the way to New Jersey when Donnie found out it was you who kept changing his background to the okay hand.”

“Gottem,” he murmurs under his breath.

“So what’s up this time?”

Leo shrugs. “Eh, sorry April? It’s… kind of a family thing. As in a thing before you were family thing.”

“So you don’t want to explain it or do you think I’m going to tell Donnie?”

He pauses, giving her a once over before settling on, “Yes.”

April sighs. Her shoulders relax as she takes a seat on the table near him. “You know I wouldn’t say anything to him if you didn’t want me to, right?”

“Um, yeah?” He fiddles with his hands. “I don’t... really want to talk about it though.”

April’s quiet for a moment, before gesturing to the floor. “Alright, off the fridge.”

“Oh, good.” Leo is down in a matter of seconds. “For a moment you’d make me stay there until your parents got home.”

“I’m not heartless, Leo.” April shrugs. “I’d make you stay there for a good three hours.”

“Hey!”

April snickers at Leo’s pout. She elbows him a little, voice more gentle now. “You know I’m here for you, right?”

“Yeah.” He gives her a grin to match her own. I’ll be fine, April.”

April smiles back at him, but she doesn’t look convinced.

“Hey Donnie, we’re brothers, right?”

Donnie frowns. “Yes..? We’ve been family since we were born. Is something wrong?”

Leo grins right back and crosses his fingers. “Nope. See you later!”

“Hey, Leo?” 

Leo jumps at the Raph’s voice. His oldest brother looks back at him from the entrance of his room, concerned.

“What’s up, Raph?” He eyes his odachi, only a few feet away from him. “You need something?

“No, no, just wondering.” Raph tilts his head. “Are you and Donnie fighting?”

“What? No,” he says in a disbelieving tone. He puts his hand over his heart. “Why would we be?”

“I dunno.” Raph shrugs. “But you keep leaving the room everytime Donnie tries to talk to you.”

He gives Raph a weak grin. “Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s totally fine.”

It clearly isn’t, and he knows his brother knows that. “You should talk to him, you know. Communication goes both ways and all.”

“Yeah, I know.” Leo sighs.

“I’ll be downstairs making dinner if you need me,” Raph says. “You can talk to me, okay?”

“Yeah,” he takes a deep breath. “I’ll be down for dinner.”

“Alright. Love you, Leo.”

“Love you too, Raph.”

He lies back on his bed and stares at the ceiling. Raph smiles at him from the doorway, but the concern is clear. 

  
  


It’s late and Leo’s awake. Insomnia is like that sometimes.

He takes a sip of his tea and leans back on the couch. He has a few hours until his game hits reset time and he can collect his dailies again. He hums, glancing upward and thinking of what he could do.

He could try taking a crack at fixing his writer’s block. He’s left a few unfinished stories in his phone. He could also just eat something and hope it’ll help, somehow. Or maybe–

“Leo?”

He hears a groggy voice from beside him. It’s Donnie, because of course it is. Maybe the universe hates him today.

“Morning, brother.” Leo throws him a grin. “Rough time?”

He gives Leo an extremely exasperated look. “You’re supposed to be asleep.”

“Huh, really?” He takes a long sip of his tea. “Didn’t notice.”

Donnie must be too tired to argue with him, because the only response he gets is a thump on the couch. Leo snorts as he watches his brother let out a sigh.

A few minutes of silence passes, and Leo thinks Donnie’s left until he breaks the silence.

“Leo,” his brother says, “are you avoiding me?”

Leo feels himself tense up at the question. He lets out a laugh, though, if only to convince him. “What? No.”

Donnie gives him a blank look. “Nardo, you’ve literally left the room every time I entered.”

“Coincidence.” Leo shrugs. “I’m a busy man, Donnie. Loads of people have me on their schedule!”

“You know, that’s a lot less effective when we both know you’ve just been saying you were meeting April everytime I asked.”

He shrugs. Okay, so maybe he should’ve come up with something else, but April’s his go to for things like this. At least, when it involved his brothers. “Don’t blame her for needing the face man!”

“While I was talking to her, Leo. While I was talking to her.”

Leo grins. Yeah, he should’ve seen that coming. “Eh, technicalities, am I right?”

“ _ Leo _ .”

“Well, what do you want me to say, Donnie?” He turns away from him, ignoring him in favor of his tea. Which needed to be seeped more, actually.

“An answer would be nice.” Donnie replies dryly.

Leo takes a long sip of his drink, not bothering to reply. Donnie squints at him, but he avoids his gaze.

“So that’s a yes.”

Leo pointedly ignores that. “Maybe I feel bad about the toaster.”

“Where did your shame go when it broke for the thirtieth time?” Donnie shakes his head. “Segway, Leo, you’re avoiding the question.”

Leo hums. This tea is more interesting than his brother, don’t you think? 

Donnie sighs. “You don’t have to talk to  _ me _ , Leo. But you should talk to someone. Raph’s worried.”

“And you aren’t?” His voice is filled with more bitterness than he intends it to. 

“What?” Donnie’s eyes widen, before frowning. He almost sounds hurt. “Leo, that’s not what I meant.”

Leo shrugs at him. “Nevermind. Tell Raph I’m fine.”

Donnie frowns. “...Okay.”

It’s quiet. It would’ve been peaceful if it weren’t for his brother staring at him while he was trying to drink his drink. He’s halfway debating on just making some excuse about video games until his brother speaks up.

“Do you honestly think I  _ wasn’t _ ?” He really does sound hurt, now. His voice is quiet as he fiddles with his hands. “I understand I can be blunt, but…”

Leo leans over to pat Donnie on the head. “Hey, I’m tired. Don’t take it too personally.”

Donnie frowns. “It’s hard not to when  _ you’re _ the one taking it personally.” 

“Whose fault is that?” Leo says, and  _ wow _ he really isn’t saying anything well tonight.

“You know, Nardo, you can leave if you want,” Donnie remarks, dryly.

Leo shrugs, gesturing to the couch with his cup. “He who finds the couch first will not leave it.”

Donnie blinks for a moment, before sighing. “That doesn’t even make any sense.”

“Eh.”

It’s been a while, he thinks, since he’s actually sat down with Donnie and talked like this. No thanks to him leaving at every opportunity, of course, but still. Neither of them are really open about feelings. It’s usually left unspoken and left behind when they binge Jupiter Jim on those rough days.

Then again, leaving it unspoken is just what he’s doing now. But he’s leaving Donnie much more obvious cues.

“I notice you aren’t avoiding me now,” Donnie says.

Case in point.

“You think I can go anywhere this late? Pops would kill me.” Leo laughs.

“I see you aren’t avoiding the question either.” The way he says it makes it sound like a statement, a fact.

“Eh. You’ve already realized it, so why bother?”

Donnie looks at him curiously. “And you’re not going to tell me why?”

“Nope.” He throws him a grin. “You’re smart, Donnie, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“Smart or not, you’re not exactly giving me a lot to go off on.” His tone is as exasperated as he is. Leo can’t help but laugh at that.

“You’ll figure it out, Donnie.”

Donnie pauses. “It’s not the toaster, is it?”

“Unless this is about how we need to help undo whatever hatred that thing has for me, then no, Donnie. Plus, toasters are underrated.”

“You say that because you break it,” Donnie remarks.

Leo shrugs, gesturing with his hand. “Details, details.”

“Then what? Leo, the last time we talked, it was about a toaster! That, and when you mentioned you changed something in my phone–”

It must’ve clicked because Donnie stops talking all of a sudden.

“Oh,” Donnie says. “You saw…”

Leo snorts. “Yeah.”

“Leo, I–” Donnie snaps his mouth shut, suddenly, then sighs. “I don’t understand.”

It’s quiet, for a moment.

Then, it’s Leo who breaks the silence. “Well, what am I supposed to think?”

Donnie’s eyes widen at his sudden outburst. Leo frowns and fiddles with the cup in his lap. “It’s been years since that argument, I never even brought it up again! And I know we were kids, but it  _ still _ ... it… it  _ used _ to sting.”

“You were the one so focused on how we could never be brothers, so why are you bringing up the whole twins thing? You were the one who asked for this!”

“I didn’t…” Donnie clicks his mouth shut.

“I don’t care if you don’t take that personally, Donnie, but after all that, it’s hard for me  _ not _ to take the whole twin thing personally. Even if it’s just my contact name.” 

It didn’t end at his contact name, but Donnie didn’t need to know how many times he’s heard him say twin out loud.

“This is probably all some kind of joke to you, huh?” He takes a sip of his tea, then frowns. “You know I was serious, though.”

Donnie sighs. “I know that.”

“So why’d you change it? Low blow, Donnie. Not that I was supposed to see it, but still.”

It’s quiet again. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Donnie fiddle with his hands, stop, then fiddles again. 

“I wasn’t trying to say we  _ couldn’t _ be brothers. Or twins,” Donny says, finally. Not quite an apology, but in a way, it’s his way of doing so. “It’s just... biologically impossible. We’re all different species of turtles.”

He’s heard this spiel many times before, though. “I know it is, Donnie.”

“I’m not saying we  _ weren’t _ ,” Donnie emphasizes. “We’re family, no matter what.”

“...I know that, Donnie.” He sips his tea. “Of course.”

“Of course.”

There’s doubt in his brother’s voice, but he’s ignoring that. “Mhm.”

Donnie sighs, fidgets and starts again. “I didn’t… you know I love you, right?”

“Yeah.” His voice is quieter than he means it to be. But it’s fine.

“And I wouldn’t have crossed that line as a joke. Or done it without being serious.”

He can’t resist the snark that comes with his reply. “Not like I have a lot of proof for  _ that _ one.”

“...I’m sorry. I didn’t…” There’s a pause, and for a moment he thinks he’s about to say he didn’t mean it, which would feel horrible. Then Donnie shakes his head. “No, I  _ do _ want to be twins again, just… It just felt too late to ask.”

The silence comes by again. Donnie leaves that in the air, like an unspoken question Leo’s not sure he has the answer to. 

He feels almost like a kid, walking away from Donnie and telling him that  _ fine, we aren’t twins anymore! _ and wishing he had said otherwise.

There’s too many questions he has for the explanation and or apology Donnie’s offering. It doesn’t feel like quite enough, and there probably will never be a time it  _ is _ . Not anytime soon, anyway. It’s an apology he needed years ago, not right now.

But damn if he doesn’t take it anyway. That, and...

“You know Don, I get the feeling you didn’t even think about telling me,” Leo says, squinting at Donnie.

Donnie coughs into his hand and doesn’t refute that. “What gave it away?”

“Obviously because we have some kind of twinsense.”

The silence that follows is too loud for his liking. Donnie highlights it with the wide eyed stare he has for Leo, who’s now avoiding Donnie’s gaze again. For a different reason.

“So… are we twins?” Donnie offers. His voice is uncertain and leaves that in the air.

He knows he could just as easily say  _ no, you’re too late _ . But really, no matter what happened, he never really wanted to stop being Donnie’s twin. He slides closer to Donnie, slings his arm around his shoulder and pulls him into a hug.

“Yeah.” He grins, resting his head on Donnie’s neck. “Can’t leave me  _ that _ easily anymore, Donald.”

Donnie raises an eyebrow but returns the hug in kind. “Who says I was leaving?” 

It’s been a few days since Donnie and Leo started indirectly fighting over being twins or not. Leo lays his head on Donnie’s shoulder as they both try and fail to rest with a smile. It’s been a while since they last agreed on anything. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but hey, he’s not complaining about the chance to be twins again.


End file.
